Baltimore County Courts Building

BKM provided MEP design services through a multi-phase process to renovate the entire Baltimore County courts building originally constructed in 1973.

The original building was constructed in 1973 with numerous renovations over the last thirty-five years. All existing mechanical and electrical equipment were documented to include original capacity, date of installation, current condition, expected remaining equipment life and recommendations for replacement or refurbishment. Cost estimates were prepared based on the summary and recommendations of the evaluation. A conditions assessment report and master plan were developed by BKM to provide the existing conditions of all mechanical and electrical systems in the building and a master plan for all MEP systems upgrades. The following phases of the project have been completed:

• Interior Renovations: BKM has provided MEP design services for multiple interior renovations, totaling approximately 100,000 square feet. The new spaces included courtrooms, hearing rooms, judge’s chambers, jury deliberation rooms, law library, central jury assembly, court reporters area, sheriff’s office, the clerk of courts, and family law center.
• 911 Call Center Relocation: The new Baltimore County 911 call center upgrade project consisted of the renovation to approximately 22,000 square feet of the first and mezzanine floors of the Baltimore County courts building. The existing 911 call center currently located within the courts building remained in service throughout the construction of the new 911 center. Only after completion of construction, testing and commissioning of the new call center, the staff was relocated to the new area. All updated HVAC and electrical systems were designed to support the new 911 call center including a dedicated chilled water system to accommodate the cooling requirements of the dispatch and server room areas.
• Electrical Service Upgrade: BKM provided the design for the phased replacement of the main electrical service for the entire courts building. The service upgrade consisted of the removal of an existing double-ended (main-tie-main) unit substation with 1,500kVA, 13.2kV primary, 480/277V secondary transformers with a new double-ended (main-tie-main) unit substation with 3,000kVA transformers. The new substation replaced the existing substation in the same location, requiring careful coordination of phasing and temporary power.
• Office of Information Technology (OIT) Data Center: BKM provided the MEP design for the data center for the OIT. This effort included replacing multiple smaller generators with a new centralized 800 kW gen-set and new dedicated HVAC (independent from the building-wide infrastructure). This portion of the facility was designed for 24×7 uptime.
• Temporary Chillers: BKM provided fast-track mechanical/electrical design services on a very tight time frame to accommodate emergency temporary chillers for cooling of the courthouse building.